Saturday, April 28, 2012

P's and Q's

For those following along with the Alphabet Quest only four letters remain - P, Q, Y and Z. Countries with the letters P and Q will soon be visited - namely Poland and Qatar. Poland has a long and interesting history and many people when asked to name a country that starts with the letter Q struggle to identify that Qatar is the only one. But this trip will also visit many other countries: - Denmark (again); - Sweden (for the first time); - Finland (for the third time but the first to properly explore Helsinki); - Estonia, Russia, Belarus and Poland (all for the first time); - Germany (first time to Berlin, having made many prior trips to Germany); and - Czech Republic and Hungary (both for the first time). The many different currencies is a step back in time to my very first trips around Western Europe, now most countries of which all use the Euro - Zlotys (means gold), Korunas, Kronas, Krones, Rubles, and Forints - will be fascinating to see all the different currencies. Ahh and the Riyals of Qatar. And then there are the many languages. That's the great thing about travel - opens the mind.

14 comments:

  1. I've only been to Qatar once, but I enjoyed it immensely. Might have something to do with the first class travel, the 6-star hotel and the various other little luxuries I was offered while I was there.

    QTV held a competition through their website for Qataris to select their favourite movie idols. As the number one choice I was flown out, wined and dined and presented to an excited studio audience as the climax to a televised countdown of these movie characters.

    Qatar Hero, it was called.

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  2. Just did a reconnoiter Sir Roger, very hot in the middle of the day, very dusty too with the sandstorm, across all the countries in this region, but good for checking out the places before I go back this evening. I'm not in a six star hotel I'm afraid, more a 4 star although I think actually it is a 3. I did ask one waitress to show me on the map where the hotel was and she didn't know, said she'd only been here in Qatar a month, indeed many of the staff didn't know, but, having now walked the streets, I can agree, maps are pretty useless. Streets go everywhere. Good thing I have a good sense of direction and memorise markers or I'd have easily got lot in the streets around the Corniche. Apparently a second company was to pick me up at the airport too, must have been a mix up with my travel agent, and rang me four times to tell me they couldn't find me and would have to charge for this booking I never made, but not charge me, but some other company, which after some research I have tracked down was an agent of an agent of an agent of my agent. Why they had to keep ringing me though I don't know but was all very confusing and so long as I get on the plane tomorrow, I'll be relieved and let my trusty travel agent sort it out.

    I'll see if they've still got the posters of you up as Qatar Hero but in this dust storm, could be anyone.

    Till Denmark Sir Roger.

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  3. Good idea, recruiting the waitress. Always the first thing I'd try to do when I arrived in some unfamiliar location. A great way to get the lie of the land and some inside knowledge. Not to mention a good waitress is usually good for, well, serving food.

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  4. Ahh Bond, ever the charmer and master of the double entendre. I was thinking it might have been a bit like that adventure in Brunei where I had the hotel floor and possibly hotel to myself but with SPECTRE or SHAPE agents this time pretending to be waiting staff. Until of course I tried to follow the map and concluded the wait staff didn't have a chance with the streets of Doha. Now in Copenhagen though I popped out for a bit of a walk and was amused to see two buskers blowing giant bubbles for a collected crowd. I snapped a few photos and threw them a coin much to their appreciation. Then a spot of culture, you would have had your trusty tux, at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, although the wind was strong enough and could have powered the saxophone all by itself. The Museum of Erotica, once a landmark in Copenhagen, all but a shell last year when I was here (the Greenland, Iceland adventure) is now all gone and replaced by a Benetton store. Ahh Bond, the World keeps changing, I wonder what it will be like in your old foe Russia. I join the tour tonight at 6, masquerading as a tourist again, as we explore a few more of the sights of Copenhagen and then cross eventually the isthmus into Russia.

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  5. Back in the old days I often went into Russia via Lithuania or Latvia. I'd take a sub through the Baltic and hook up with some underpaid fisherman looking for a way to supplement his meager income. He'd tip me overboard close to a deserted beach. Then it was just a matter of hotfooting it east or south or wherever I needed to go.

    If you find yourself in St Petersburg you could do worse than look up Katya Orlova. She ended up back there after poor Barley Blair died a few years ago. Great man, Barley. Reminded me of myself in a lot of ways.

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  6. I saw one of the Danish subs today Sir Roger, it was near Churchill Park, home of the Citadel and the Gelfion statue. I didn't know Barley but Katya has been in contact about her friend Yakov, said something about meeting her at the Russia House wherever that is. I am off to Stockholm first though and touching base with an old colleague on assignment from Adelaide. Human Factors specialist. My last night in Copenhagen though I spent at the Tivoli Gardens, took in a pantomime oh and found some handmade Tiramisu chocolate that was divine. All sorts of fun and adventure, I think you would have liked it Bond, just the kind of thing for you I reckon. During the day though I walked in search of the second little mermaid in Copenhagen - the genetically modified Little Mermaid. I had checked the map but got there and couldn't find it, was rather a long walk, but checked the map again when I got back, did some more detailed research and while I was very close, it must be very well hidden. I'll have to capture that next time I'm in Copenhagen. I'll be sure and check out the Vasa in Stockholm and wasn't one of your girls from Sweden? The one in the bikini perhaps or was that the unmentionable Bond's girlfriend?

    'Til Stockholm Bond, tell me more about Yakov if you can.

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  7. Ah, Katya! She's pulling your leg. The Russia House is in London! Chances are she just wants to wander through the corridors of the Hermitage and show off her knowledge of art.

    Don't know why I've never been to the Tivoli Gardens. Had a memorable time at the Prater in Vienna once with Kara Milovy. Oh what a cellist! Of course, the way Saunders was crushed to death in those cafe doors rather took the shine off the whole experience.

    Be wary while you are in Sweden. I have recently watched several documentaries about the place: it is very dangerous. Not only are there child vampires on the loose, but a girl with a prominent dragon-style tattoo on her back. And be very careful indeed if you visit Ystad in the far south. There seem to be more murders there than there are in Midsomer County. Thank goodness that chap Wallander is there to catch all those crooks.

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  8. Oh that Russian humour! It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. In Stockholm now and there was an advert for a vampire movie on TV - Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter. I must have missed that bit of history. But I'll be sure an check out the old town as if there are vampires about that is surely where they will be. I may have passed Ystad as I came across from Denmark; very rainy down south. I went past the original home of Saab too - I can't remember the pronunciation but I did discover Husqvana is a town as well as well chainsaw, sewing machine and other appliances. The GPS on my camera is proving very interesting for seeing on the map where I've taken all the photos - I'll post some images of that when I get home. Started filling in the paperwork for Russia today too and apply for the Belarus visa tomorrow. Apparently we have to be very flexible in Russia. Not sure why that makes me think of Russian gymnasts but I'm sure the Swedish girls will change that. I'll see if I can find one with a dragon tattoo. I saw a sign on a truck of one with a Playboy tattoo but I'm not sure that's the same thing.

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  9. Well Sir Roger, I passed the Millennium Office in Stockholm but no girl with a dragon tattoo. Plenty of girls with other tattoos but no dragon one. I checked out the Vasa too. If it wasn't for 1628 when it sank on its maiden voyage I might have attributed that one to you. Perhaps one of your long distant colleagues. The Vasa was very spectacular and the skeletons added a little something to the visit. Then onto the ferry for the trip up the Baltic, past 25,000 islands in the archipelago, you could hide an entire fleet in there, so many island hideouts too made me think of many of your movies. I walked around the ship and then as the passengers got drunker and drunker one Swedish fellow got a shock on discovering I was Australian and was sure I was that fella that was killed by a sting ray, that Steve Irwin, of course how I could have been talking to him if I was Steve Irwin alluded him, but he was pretty sure about it. Then on arriving into Helsinki past the forts at the entrance to the harbour I spotted another sub up on dry dock, there must be plenty of them spare around these parts. I took a quick city tour to familiarise myself with the place - the Temppeliaukio rock church, the Sibelius monument, the old Olympic venue and the markets where I bought a rather nice punnet of berries and cherries. Tomorrow I'll pop over to Tallinn, a day trip there and back before up early and heading to the Russian border the next day. Smooth the way will you Sir Roger, apparently the border crossing can require quite a bit of flexibility - anywhere from minutes to many hours, there is no consistency I'm told. Brief you more in St Petersburg if not before. Oh and got the Belarus visa okay, that all went smoothly.

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  10. Ah Helsinki! Not a lot of people know that Helsinki is the only city to host the Winter Olympics, the Summer Olympics and a full SPECTRE board meeting.

    I often find that it is useful to use identity of a dead man as cover. That way there are already plenty of records - birth, marriage, education etc and as long as the death was obscure enough we don't have to put too much extra work into the 'legend'. However I don't recommend choosing a high profile Australian who had a high profile death. But maybe that's just me.

    Many years ago, before she died in that Swiss climing accident, my mother was stuck in a tour bus crossing from Russia into Belarus. Apparently the waiting time was about 3 hours, but as a bona-fide claustrophobe she had a panic attack and the border officials let the coach through! Something you might want to keep in mind. Just be convincing.

    Off to Malaysia tomorrow. Will attempt to contact you there. Don't know what sort of technology will be available at Station KL.

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  11. Berlin, hey? What memories. All those nights spent waiting, hoping against hope our agent would make it through Checkpoint Charlie undetected. Secret drops along Ku'Damm. Once caught up with a double agent in Potsdammer Platz. There was some sort of fireworks show going on; perfect for hiding the sound of gunshots. Should go back, but it just wouldn't be the same.

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  12. Good to have you back Sir Roger, I had heard you were on a special mission around the Petronas Towers. Smolensk was good old style Soviet - you would have remembered it well and Minsk, well, European on the outside, Soviet on the inside and indeed Lee Harvey Oswald lived there for a while and it was where the Communist Party was originally founded. The crossing from Belarus to Poland though, gosh it reminded me of some of the villains you had to deal with. But I hooked up with the Uncle in Warsaw for a tour through the Warsaw Uprising Museum and heard his stories of his family hiding a Jweish family during the war and then dealing with the Soviets. Made for a really interesting time and we finished it in the Royal Palace Gardens with ice cream discussing the future of Poland and Russia. Then to Berlin and despite the slip up with my luggage, dealing with the goons and bureaucracy, I got it back all safe and sound. Checkpoint Charlie is now sadly a tourist spot, with McDonald's Pride of Place and two pretend guards for you to have your photo with. But I got off the beaten track in the old East Berlin and you could feel the mystery in the air. Now in Prague and if ever there was a setting for a spy novel this would be it. Not surprising many a movie has been filmed here. I noticed the unusual establishment across the road from my Hotel - one of the best in Prague - and well let's just say I won't be visiting, my IPAD and guide book tell me it gets more action than you do on your adventures. Apparently there is a lot of this in the Golden City. I'll stick to just taking photos. A couple of days here then Budapest and back to Doha. Regards to N (who of course got promoted from M), and how come you didn't get the gig with the Olympics? In the bad books with Maam again?

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  13. I'm sure I've mentioned before how we Bonds are all one gestalt entity. So while I wasn't jumping with Her Maj into the opening ceremony, actually I was.

    As for Budapest, I watched an interesting documentary recently about the search for a mole in the Secret Service back in the 70s. Some bad business went down in Budapest with poor old Jim Prideaux. Having said that, I remember it all as happening in Czechoslavakia. Still, I am getting on a bit, and the memory does play tricks. Just be careful when you're sitting in arcades sipping espresso.

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  14. I managed to catch a special training video of the Hungarian secret police whilst at Memento Park, know all about apartment K's and apartment T's now. But mission almost complete Bond, back in Melbourne now before returning to base. Spent the last day in Qatar doing research by the pool, TIME magazine's 100 most influential people. Didn't have you on the list, but a few others I must learn more on. Oh and I sent you postcard Sir Roger, might take a while as these things do. Have a few more to send today, couldn't get stamps in Budapest or Doha. Well could have in Doha, but didn't have the Riyals and in Budapest the hotel and ship had run out and as circumstances decreed, I needed my last Florints for a change of plan when the pick up didn't arrive. But all in all a good mission. Here's hoping you were successful in Malaysia. Till next time Bond, might be a little sojourn and then I think it is X. There are no countries with X but two that contain X and one I need to fill in a hole on the map :-)

    Till next time Bond. Pleasure as always.

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